Q&A with Erika

What are the key factors of a successful Digital Marketing campaign? 

While many things go into a great digital marketing campaign, some of the ones that are top-of-mind for me are: 

1) Making sure we have the right message, audience, connection moment and creative for the right channel. For example, a TV ad that hinges on a great soundtrack may not be the best way to connect with audience on social media. Research has shown that many people tend to scroll through their feeds with the volume off while they are on the go    

2) Knowing the objectives for each digital channel and how we will measure performance.  While that seems like basic Marketing 101, it does get surprisingly complex when we have so many ways to measure performance yet not one single perfect measure  

3) Optimizing our digital channels in flight where possible – whether it’s machine optimization or human optimization. It is important to evaluate and adjust on a regular basis to achieve both efficiency in your spend as well as overall campaign effectiveness.  

Where do you see the future of healthcare marketing?

Walgreens, like many organizations, is striving to deliver personalized marketing;  as we evolve on this path we want to be able to offer personalized, consistent and relevant experiences across all channels. When it comes to health and healthcare, however, we still have many barriers to personalization due to privacy and ethical considerations.  I think a challenge and opportunity for healthcare marketing will be how we balance relevancy of message against potential risk of being viewed as intrusive

The Feel More Like You is a very successful campaign. What were your biggest learnings and what’s next?

Following our March campaign, we were excited to see that we boosted unaided awareness among cancer patients as well as the likelihood to recommend Walgreens.  Our campaign was the recipient of two Bulldog PR Awards for “Best Healthcare Campaign” and “Best Beauty, Fashion or Lifestyle campaign.”  

As far as next steps, we launched an in-store fundraiser for Susan G. Komen and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society last November as a continuation of the Feel More Like You initiative. Along with Walgreens pledged amount, the initiative contributed $25M to support research in hard-to-treat cancers.  

We also have an always-on campaign focused on women experiencing cancer to continue to drive awareness and engagement of the Feel More Like You services. 

Do you have any exciting projects in the works that you can share with us? 

Walgreens is planning some big activations in the oncology space this summer but unfortunately we can’t share the details of this just yet! In other health areas, we are developing a new umbrella campaign that will unite much of our chronic condition marketing – it will be a balance of consistency of message around our pharmacists’ expertise, yet retaining the more unique communications relevant for customers experiencing different chronic conditions.   We are hoping to launch this later this summer.